Ask the
average folk enthusiast who Derroll Adams is, and chances are you'll get a vague
glimmer of recognition, followed by a shrug of puzzlement. Few figures have
effected as much of an impact on other musicians, while falling by the wayside
before the public. Indeed, the only comparable figure who comes immediately to
mind is England's Davy Graham, who influenced an entire generation of folk and
rock guitarists, and at least one superstar (Paul Simon), but hasn't courted
serious record sales in decades.
Born Derroll Lewis Thompson in Portland, Oregon, he was the son of a vaudeville
juggler and master storyteller. At age 16, just about the time that the Second
World War was breaking out, Adams joined the Army, but was discharged within a
few months when his age was discovered. He later served in the United States
Coast Guard, after which he attended art school — it was during this time that
Adams chanced to see a concert by Josh White, which set him on the road to
becoming a musician. His subsequent hearing of records by
Pete Seeger,
Woody Guthrie, and
Cisco Houston only reinforced his love
of folk music, and in a surprisingly short time, he'd become proficient on the
guitar and a near-virtuoso on the banjo. He played for audiences as part of
former Vice President Henry Wallace's 1948 presidential campaign. During the
1950s, Adams hooked up with the folk singer Odetta in an organization known as
"World Folk Artists," and began building an audience; by the end of the decade,
his banjo playing was being used on some film soundtracks.
In 1957, Adams had his first successful song, "Portland Town," an account of
birth, life, and death that became his magnum opus, covered widely over the
years by other folk singers. Around the same time, he met up with
Ramblin' Jack Elliott, who,
with his wife, invited Adams to come to England with them. Over the next few
years, the three played numerous folk clubs in England, while Adams resided for
a time with songwriter Lionel Bart and also performed on the European continent.
Adams and Elliott also made
recordings together for Topic Records, which was then England's leading folk
label. In 1966, while traveling through Europe, they cut an album together in
Milan, Italy. By this time, Adams was a fixture on the European folk scene, his
rough-hewn voice and distinctive banjo style drawing a serious following,
especially among the new generation of folk performers coming up behind him.
All wasn't well, however, as Adams became increasingly disenchanted with the
widening audience for folk music. Where the clubs in the early '60s had been
attended by serious listeners with an honest interest, by 1966 he found himself
playing more often to rowdy, drunken listeners who cared little for what he was
actually doing. He became known for incidents in which he would smash his guitar
and leave the stage. Finally, he met a woman from Belgium who became his fourth
wife, and he left the music business to help run her decorating business.
His influence lingered, however. In 1967, even as Adams was temporarily retired,
he became the subject of perhaps the best song that Donovan Leitch (aka Donovan)
has ever written, "Epistle to Derroll." Appearing on the Gift From a Flower
to a Garden album, the words and music reflected the debt that Leitch owed
Adams as a musician and songwriter — the entire song, and specifically the line
"bring me word of the banjo man with the tattoo on his hand," may be the most
poignant and haunting in Donovan's entire song output.
Both his wife's business and the accompanying marriage failed, however, and
Adams resumed his performing career in Europe's folk clubs, his name still
widely known on his adopted continent. He proved a fairly controversial figure,
however, for his rejection of authenticity and his purist approach to folk
music; he insisted that old songs could be performed perfectly well in new ways,
and he occasionally got drunk and swore on-stage .
Still, he continued playing, and in 1991, the folk community — including the
members of Pentangle, as well as his former partner
Elliott and veterans like
Happy Traum — turned out for a concert celebrating Adams' 65th birthday, which
was later released on record. Derroll Adams passed away on February 6, 2000 in
Antwerp, Belgium. He remains unjustifiably better known in Europe than in the
country of his birth.

ROLL ON BUDDY -Jack ELLIOTT & Derroll
ADAMS - Rich And Rambling Boy / Buffalo Skinners / I Wish I Was A Rock /
It´s Hard Ain´t It Hard / All Around The Water Tank / Mother's Not Dead /
East Virginia Blues / The Old Bachelor / Danville Girl / The State Of
Arkansas / Death Of Mr. Garfield / Roll On Buddy